Six-year-old Ian Richthammer stood back and looked at his creation made from toothpicks and mini marshmallows.

“We planned to build the biggest skyscraper,” he said, enthusiastically.

The structure slumped to the side a little, but the first grader was still happy with the final product. “We at least got two stories!"

Richthammer along with hundreds of other elementary students at Corpus Christi Catholic School filed through the gym Wednesday afternoon for the school’s first elementary Science Olympiad event.

The idea, math and science teacher Abby Giroux explained, was for the elementary school students to get a taste of the program before they reach middle school.

“We have a middle school Science Olympiad program but we’ve always thought about incorporating younger grades,” she said. “I get a lot of people asking before fifth grade when they can get into Science Olympiad.”

The team-based program allows students to compete in science-related events at the regional, state and national levels.

Giroux said she thought it would be best before the school started competing against other elementaries, to host its own in-school event.

“We thought we’d try it out here first,” she said.

On Wednesday, middle schoolers picked from a list of Science Olympiad activities that they would teach to their younger peers. Some, like Richthammer, were tasked with building the tallest marshmallow tower in the time allotted while other students built barges from aluminum foil to find how many pennies it would take for them to sink.

“We liked (the lesson) because you get to play in the water and it teaches you what kinds of things float,” sixth-grader Jailyn Everest said as she stood at the “barge-building” station.

Other kids learned about animal tracks and made their own handprints in brightly colored paint.

Giroux said the hands-on activities were great for not only the elementary kids, but the middle schoolers, too.

“They don’t realize how much they learn when they’re the teachers,” she said. “It gives them a chance to interact with other grades.”